I hate talking on the phone, but I love my mobile. Text messaging keeps me in touch with friends, family and co-workers without the inefficiencies of a phonecall.

SMS - or short message service - combines the best aspects of email and telephone. Text messages are asynchronous, short communications you can retrieve and respond to on your own time without requiring a computer.

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Texting can seem inconvenient, but text messages have numerous advantages over voice calls. Human beings read text 25% faster than listening to speech. Text messages are archivable, searchable, and can never be misheard or cut off by bad reception. Texting someone gets info into their hands when they're away from their desk without requiring they stop everything to pick up the phone to talk. Text messages get right to the point and cut out time-wasting small talk, throat-clearing, and the energy it takes to get back into the flow of what the callee was doing before the phone rang. Text messages can be "heard" in a noisy situation like a party or concert. Texting various web services can retrieve helpful information you need on the go like directions, addresses and phone numbers.

In short, texting can help you get things done. For those of you with an SMS-capable mobile phone, here are a few power texting tips.

When you're at a standing-room only concert trying to meet up with a friend, you can't afford to give up your hard-earned spot, but you can't hear a damn thing either. This is the time to text. SMS also comes in mighty handy in libraries, at parties or at religious services where talking is not possible or a no-no.

Flirt

So that girl gave you her phone number but you're not sure how she feels about you. A text message "hi" or smiley can help confirm or deny your hunch she's into you. If she doesn't respond? Take comfort in the fact that rejection is a lot easier when it's not face to face.

Set up a good time to call

Wanna have a long gossip session with a long-distance friend, or an involved phone meeting with a co-worker? Send a text asking "When's a good time to call about X." It can help prepare the callee for a long talk avoid the "I have to go, call you later?"

"Ping" your sweetheart

A "Thinking of you :)" text message is a surefire way to make Special Someone smile. Up your karma points and spread love just because you can with SMS.

To send an SMS, create a new message and add a recipient from your mobile's phone book. Sending a message to an SMS-capable phone only requires the recipient's phone number in the To: field. Then, to type out the body of your message, use the numeric keys on your phone and hit them several times to get at the letter you'd like. For instance, if you want the letter "B," hit "2" twice. You'll see the 2 key will scroll through all the letters associated with it - first "A" then "B."

Is this an insanely inconvenient way to type out text? Absolutely. But there are methods to make it a bit easier.

Save your thumbs

Use message templates

After awhile you'll notice you send the same kinds of messages over and over. Set up templates for your most-used messages - like "Running late, be there in" or "Call me when you get a chance" to avoid repetitive thumbing.

Turn on predictive text

Many modern phones offer a "predictive text" feature, which takes away the need to hit numeric keys multiple times to get the letter you want. Thumb out the numbers that contain the letters in a word by pressing each just once, and your phone will automatically predict what word you intended, saving tons of keypresses over time. Here's what predictive text looks like on my Nokia 7610:

Text messaging is a fabulous way to communicate when you're not at your computer with easy access to IM or email. But there are ways to use SMS from the desktop as well.